Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport en-route to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 17, 2014. Three hours into the flight, the Boeing-777 was shot down by Russian proxy forces using a Buk surface-to-air missile above Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
"I am grateful for the support and the readiness at the highest level to promote diplomacy," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the phone conservation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We share the same view on the need for a ceasefire."
The convictions mark a significant development in Britain's efforts to counter Russian intelligence operations amid heightened tensions stemming from Moscow's war against Ukraine and repeated Kremlin threats toward Kyiv's allies.
According to the Verkhovna Rada's website, Ukraine completed the ratification of the U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement on May 12. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the deal.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to 10 Downing Street on March 1, 2025, in London, England. (Peter Nicholls/Getty Images)
The U.K., France, Ukraine, and possibly other countries will develop a ceasefire plan that will be presented to the U.S., U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in an interview with the BBC on March 2.
Starmer is hosting President Volodymyr Zelensky and other leaders in London to discuss how to strengthen support for Ukraine and ensure a just and lasting peace. The summit is even more crucial now after a fallout between the Ukrainian leader and U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House.
The British prime minister and French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Washington earlier this week, are seeking to mend the ties between Kyiv and the U.S. and present a united front on Ukraine and Russia.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the summit, Starmer said the joint ceasefire initiative would be "an important step forward" after the heated exchange in the Oval Office on Feb. 28.
"President Zelensky is rightly concerned that if there's to be a deal, it has to hold. That's why we've talked extensively about what are the guarantees - in what way do we all defend the deal if that deal is made," Starmer said.
The U.K. and France have spearheaded the idea of deploying European peacekeepers in Ukraine to monitor a potential ceasefire. Macron and Starmer appealed to Trump to remain involved in maintaining a post-war order, but they failed to receive any concrete commitments as the new U.S. administration expects Europe to take responsibility for Ukraine's security.
The humiliating treatment Zelensky received from Trump and Vice President JD Vance underscored the growing rift between Europe and the U.S.
While most European leaders publicly voiced support for Zelensky after the spat, Starmer called both the Ukrainian and U.S. leaders in an attempt to bridge the rift. The prime minister reportedly aims to tell Zelensky that fixing relations with Trump would be necessary to ensure lasting peace.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Chris York
